


These Violent Waters

by BlueSkyLarimar



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Mermaid, M/M, larimar ships 8/war master - monster fucker edition, no betas we die like clowns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:14:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28133004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueSkyLarimar/pseuds/BlueSkyLarimar
Summary: The Kingdom of Gallifrey is a proud one. So when a murderous mermaid begins to stalk its waters, it takes swift and effective action......by hiring a humble conservationist of magical animals to kill it. Or to die trying.But the Doctor, ever a tricky soul, manages to find a third option that changes everything.
Relationships: Eighth Doctor/The War Master (Jacobi)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	1. Nights of Darkness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [space_boye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/space_boye/gifts).



The night was quiet, the lake still. Silently, the Doctor begged for even a breath of wind to hide his little boat.  
  
Here was where the mermaid had been spotted, here it would appear again. Here it would die.  
  
The Doctor didn’t usually allow himself to get roped into such fishy (heh!) endeavours yet here he was. He had been contracted to kill the creature that had been terrorising these waters for years. The ‘eye for an eye’ mentality didn’t sit well with him. Yet here he was.  
  
He gazed out across the lake, eyes heavy. He yawned. He’d been at this for days, instructed not to return until he could prove the monster was dead. That had squashed any thought of pacifism right quick.  
  
Light glinted off the surface of the water, highlighting its gentle ripples as they came and went. Until one stayed for just a moment too long…!  
  
The Doctor jerked forward, straining to catch even just a glimpse. But as quickly as it was spotted, it was gone, leaving only the thought of something being there behind.  
  
Sighing, the Doctor settled back. The night was supposed to be fair, perhaps sleeping til sunrise wouldn’t be the worst idea. Pulling his spear to his chest, the Doctor closed his eyes.  
  
  
  
  
  
“How long are you going to be here?”  
  
The Doctor jerked awake and scrambled upright. His breath was ragged and refused to slow even when he caught sight of the voice’s owner. A man was draped over the side of his boat, head resting on his folded arms, blue eyes gazing rather petulantly up at him. The moon had shifted a little, the Doctor noted. He had been asleep a while.  
  
“Until the morning. Probably.” The Doctor tapped his spear distractedly. “How long have you been here?”  
  
“A while. I was watching you sleep.”  
  
“Right. And why are you here, other than to watch me sleep?”  
  
“Why, I might ask you what _you’re_ doing here. _I_ live here!” The man tutted. The Doctor watched in astonishment as a silvery tail breached the surface of the water and slapped back down, almost in annoyance. His little boat rocked.  
  
“You’re the mermaid.” He breathed, following where the tail might have gone to try and see it again.  
  
“Yes. And you’re…” it glanced at his legs, “not.”  
  
“Yes.” The Doctor remembered the spear in his hand. “I’m supposed to kill you.”  
  
“Are you now? Is that why you’ve been here every night, besmirching my lake with this… thing?”  
  
“Hey! It may not be anything special, but it’s all I have right now. Besides, didn’t you hear the thing about me killing you?”  
  
“Oh no, I heard. Tell me…” The tail reappeared, skimming the water’s surface hypnotically. “Which one pushed them over the edge? The fisherman? The politician? The soldier? Or perhaps it was that little girl… oh yes, what a tragedy.”  
  
“You regret it? Then why do it?”  
  
“Of course I don’t regret it! But that’s what one is meant to say in such a situation, no? As for why…” The mermaid pushed itself up to look the Doctor in the eye. “Sport.”  
  
“Sport?”  
  
“Sport! And if I enjoy the spoils of my hunt occasionally, well, who could blame me?”  
  
“I can! And I do!” The Doctor rushed forward, knocking his spear over in the process. They both watched it fall. The clang of wood against wood was loud against the silent night.  
  
“Is that supposed to be the murder weapon?” The mermaid lowered itself back into its original position. The Doctor continued to stare.  
  
“Do you consider this murder?”  
  
“Do you?”  
  
“No. I consider this sport.” The Doctor spat. The mermaid chuckled lowly at having its own words thrown back at it.  
  
“Do you now?”  
  
It tilted its head to the side, white hair shining in the moonlight. The Doctor examined the mermaid’s face. It looked old, why couldn’t he just wait for it to die? Did he have to murder it?  
  
“Could you murder a poor old mermaid?”  
  
…Did he say that out loud?  
  
“No. But you were thinking it.” It said matter-of-factly. It rounded the boat, strong tail pushing against the water. It never took its eyes off the Doctor.  
  
“Either way, you can’t call yourself ‘poor’ – you’ve already admitted to killing at least four people and you’ve been terrorising my people for a long, long time!”  
  
“Well, you’ve got me there.”  
  
The mermaid pulled itself up onto the small boat’s bow, and for the first time the Doctor saw it in its entirety. The long, powerful tail curled around the wood, its strength complimented by the solid-looking, nearly-human torso. It towered over the Doctor.  
  
“Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll stop hunting your people and you won’t kill me. Deal?”  
  
“They won’t let me back until I have your head.”  
  
“You’ll just have to keep coming back then, won’t you?”  
  
“You could have killed me while I was asleep.” The Doctor realised. “Why didn’t you?”  
  
“What would be the point? No fun in killing a sitting duck, and if you had managed to attack me with that thing you could very well have wounded me. No fun at all.”  
  
“But to eat? Surely I might be a good meal?”  
  
“Do you _want_ me to eat you?” The mermaid looked amused by the thought.  
  
“No, no, no…!” The Doctor stuttered.  
  
“Well then. I’ll see you tomorrow night. And the night after that. And, perhaps, all the nights after that. Unless I get hungry, of course.”  
  
Silently, the monster disappeared. All was still once again.  
  
And the Doctor was alone as he rowed back to shore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> at midnight a few days ago i thought about jacobi!master as a mermaid and blacked out and when i woke up i had written this  
> might continue it, might not, but i do have Ideas^TM  
> (in honour of fig because i saw those fuckin blurry eyes and i wanted to pay tribute to all the cool shit you've done ever)


	2. Light reflects

“Come here… Come this way…”  
  
The night was once again quiet, all noise being muffled by the thick layer of fog that had settled across the lake. The Doctor had arrived a little earlier than other nights, claiming a change in the monster’s routine. That… wasn’t exactly a lie.  
  
The monster’s voice once again broke the silence.  
  
“Almost there… Just a little further now…”  
  
Almost there? But it still sounded so far away. The Doctor continued to row, vaguely noting that perhaps putting his (literal) blind faith in a murderous sea creature probably wasn’t the best idea.  
  
The fog smelled vaguely salty, like the first hints of the sea. The Doctor sighed, watching his breath join the fog. He rowed mindlessly, pace quickening with his racing thoughts.  
  
How long had it been since he’d seen the sea? Where did the mermaid come from? How many of them were there? What had driven this one to eat people? What did they eat other than people? Had he left enough food for the unicorns, they tended to get rather grumpy if underfed-?  
  
“Steady there, steady!”  
  
A hand on his boat was all the monster needed to stop it in its tracks. The Doctor looked to the water and found the mermaid looking thoroughly amused.  
  
“Eager, aren’t we?” A razor-sharp smile split the monster’s features. “What exactly are you expecting from this?”  
  
“You to stop killing my people and me to finally get some closure from spending night after night on the open water.”  
  
“Hm. I suppose that might… excite you.”  
  
The Doctor shifted uncomfortably as the creature took hold of the boat and began to push.  
  
“I should give you a hand with that.”  
  
The mermaid gently guided the boat towards a mound of rocks. The Doctor, ever curious, examined the creature as it did so. Its long, powerful tail rippled just below the surface of the water as it turned the boat so it would fit just so. The Doctor helped it tie the boat to one of the tallest rocks and turned to look at the mound.  
  
“So, why here?”  
  
“I thought it would be a little more comfortable than your little boat. For the both of us.”  
  
The Doctor squinted through the gloom and the fog, “And I’m supposed to perch on that?”  
  
“Dear me,” the monster tutted, “your eyesight really is terrible. Is it just you? Or are all of your people like this?”  
  
“Well, I don’t spend a great deal of time in the dark. Like I presume you do.”  
  
“You have a point there, I must concede. Here, let me help you.” It held out a hand. The Doctor stared at it for a moment.  
  
A small voice in the back of his head demanded to know what he was doing, why he wasn’t unhitching his boat and rowing away as fast as he could.  
  
The Doctor took the monster’s hand.  
  
It instructed him to step out onto the rocks and lead him along them. As he walked, the Doctor began to make out a patch darker than the rest. A cave, he realised as he was drawn closer.  
  
The cave was rather shallow, with a tall ceiling and small pools of water here and there. The Doctor breathed in the humid air and watched as the monster disappeared and then reappeared in one of the pools closest to the cave mouth. It propped its head on folded arms and gazed lazily up at him.  
  
“Do you like it?”  
  
“Is this where you live? Is this… home?”  
  
“No. But I thought it would be convenient for us both. You don’t have to sit on that little boat, I get to stay in the water, and we both get some shelter.” It raised an eyebrow. “Don’t say I never do anything for you.”  
  
“Right.” The Doctor found a dry patch and sat cross-legged on the cold stone. He leant back against the cave wall. All was dark except for the pale creature in front of him. It smiled expectantly. “What?”  
  
“You really are an odd one. Following me into the dark like this… just what could lead you to do such a thing?”  
  
“I could ask the same thing about you. Me following you into the dark is understandable given your ultimatum – but why give it? Why do you want me here?”  
  
“Well, when a stranger barges into your home, wouldn’t you want to get to know them? You came to kill me, didn’t you say?”  
  
“I was supposed to. Supposed to, yes.”  
  
“You seemed… reluctant.”  
  
“Death isn’t my domain. I prefer to keep things alive, to watch, to observe. I’m a conservationist.” The Doctor finished lamely.  
  
“And there’s the true reason. How interesting.”  
  
“There aren’t many, or any, mermaids around these parts. I got curious.”  
  
“Yes… there aren’t any, are there? What a pity. No friends for me.”  
  
“You didn’t…” The Doctor’s mind was suddenly filled with questions. “You didn’t eat them, did you?”  
  
The creature laughed heartily, tail splashing water into the Doctor’s face. He huffed and wiped it away.  
  
“Eating, always the eating! Is that all you think about? Should I have provided a buffet?”  
  
“I said I was curious! About you, about your habitat, about your diet… Do you only eat people? What else do you eat?”  
  
The Doctor hadn’t realised head started leaning forward until he noticed the mermaid was leaning back. It looked bemused, eyes twinkling gently. Or was that just the moon?  
  
“My, you really are curious. I was intending to spend this evening getting to know you, but it seems I have no say in the matter. Fair enough.” It stroked its beard with a clawed finger. The Doctor found himself entranced by the way the webbing rippled with the action. “I’ll answer your questions. To begin: I think you might call me a scavenger. I eat what I can find.”  


  
The questions flowed like water. The night wore on, becoming early morning before the Doctor even thought about letting up. The creature seemed happy to talk about itself, unable to stop itself from preening.  
  
_That comment about not having friends might have been closer to the truth than he meant it to be,_ the Doctor noted, just a little sadly.  
  
Eventually, the sky lightened, and the Doctor shifted his cold and aching limbs. He yawned, hopefully discreetly.  
  
“Bored already?” The monster quipped. Ah, apparently not then.  
  
“Just tired. I may not need as much as others, but I do need some sleep.”  
  
“I see.” It cupped its hands and rubbed some water over its face, sighing gently as it did so. “Let’s end this little interrogation for tonight, then.”  
  
The Doctor nodded. He stood, rubbing his sore legs with his cold hands to try and force some life into them. He walked, somewhat awkwardly, to the cave mouth. At a quiet snicker behind him, he turned to look back at the creature. It slowly sunk into the water, still snickering, until only its eyes remained.  
  
“Not a word.” The Doctor grumbled.  
  
The rest of the creature disappeared and then reappeared outside the cave. It pulled the Doctor’s boat from its mooring and patted it.  
  
“Well? Time to go! If you can make it, that is!”  
  
“I said not a word!”  
  
The sun slowly rose as the Doctor rowed, the creature swimming alongside him. Just as Gallifrey came into view, the creature stopped.  
  
“Here is where I’ll leave you. I don’t know about you, but I had a wonderful night.”  
  
“I’m glad. And I hope you’ll keep your promise still.”  
  
“Of course. But, you know, something just occurred to me.”  
  
“What’s that then?”  
  
“Well, with all these questions, there’s one we’ve both neglected to ask.”  
  
“Really? I’m not sure-“  
  
“What’s your name?”  
  
“My…?” It was the Doctor’s turn to laugh. “People often tell me I forget pleasantries, but this is ridiculous! People usually call me the Doctor. And you?”  
  
“I’m usually known as the Master. Pleased to meet you at last.”  
  
“Master of… what, exactly?”  
  
“Doctor of what? I think those are questions for tomorrow’s night, don’t you? Good day!” With that, the Master disappeared beneath the lake’s surface.  
  
The Doctor felt exhaustion wash over him. Hopefully, he'd be back in time to feed the unicorns.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so tired. Have some bullshit.


End file.
